"The Curse" -- TV Review

 

During the final week of the 61^st New York Film Festival, I attended a screening of the World Premiere of first three episodes of the new Showtime comedy series, “The Curse”, starring Emma Stone, Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie.

Synopsis

When a recently-married couple gets a TV show to do a home makeover for the underprivileged, will they be able to find success even after a curse is placed on the husband?

Story

Episode1:  LAND OF ENCHANTMENT - Asher and Whitney Siegel (Fielder and Stone) are newly married but have decided to go into business for themselves upgrading the homes – and in some cases the lifestyles – of people in the New Mexico area.  They have pitched the idea of a television series based on this concept and one network has given them a small budget to shoot some pilot episodes.  Asher engages his old college buddy Dougie Schecter (Safdie) to produce and direct these episodes.  However, in the midst of shooting, a little girl who feels slighted by Asher places a curse on him and he is followed by bad luck thereafter.

Episode2:  PRESSURE'S LOOKING GOOD SO FAR – After an interview with a local television station didn’t go terribly well, Asher tries to negotiate with the news reporter not to air that part of the segment; as an incentive, he offers to get her proof that a casino where he worked as a consultant is enabling gamblers.  Whitney pushes to make sure that when the subjects of each episode get a new or renovated home, the living quarters are upgraded to make sure that they are ecologically sound.  Asher sets out to try to find the little girl who placed the curse on him in order to make good with her and have the curse lifted.

Episode3:  QUESTA LANE – At an auction, Asher purchases a lot filled with squalid homes that he and Whitney plan to renovate for their new television show.  Quite by accident, he discovers that squatting in one of these homes is the little girl who placed the curse on him; she shares the place with her sister and their father.  Asher and Whitney try to befriend the family so that the girl will remove the curse she placed on Asher.  Asher visits his former colleagues at the casino to attempt to obtain video evidence that they are allowing gamblers to go in over their head – otherwise, the television reporter won’t edit the portion of the interview that makes Asher look bad. 

Review

“The Curse” may very well be the next big television comedy – unfortunately, you’ll need a premium cable channel subscription in order to view the episodes.  Keep in mind that this show will certainly not be for everyone – while quite funny, it is extremely uncomfortable to watch.  This is because some of the jokes can make you squirm or cringe – obviously, describing some of them in any detail would be giving away far too much, but if this description makes you curious about giving this show a try, then it might just be your next “appointment TV” (or binge streaming, however you choose to consume). 

Both the writing and performances in “The Curse” are top notch; some creative and innovative minds are on display here and they are firing on all cylinders.  If all of the remaining seven episodes of this series are as good as the first three, then this show will surely be an enormous hit.  It’s a great achievement not just because it’s funny but also because it is a biting and incisive social satire that takes aim at the media and the public’s perception (or misperception) of public personalities and celebrity as a whole.  It is admirable for its “take no prisoners” approach, not particularly caring whom they might anger as a result. 

This was something of a first for The New York Film Festival in the sense that it has never premiered a television show before – in the past, it has been exclusively limited to movies.  However, given the talent involved – and given the unusual nature of the content – it was chosen to debut at the festival.  “The Curse” will start streaming on both Showtime and Paramount+ in November 2023 with a number of 10 total weekly episodes; however, if you are in the New York City area and are unable to stream from either of these two networks – but are still interested in seeing the entire series – the remaining episodes will play at Lincoln Center’s theaters from November 2023 to January 2024.